~ Open your eyes, and then open your eyes again -Terry Pratchett

Sketchy

I have a truly terrible time remaining diligent in my personal Bible Study time. I know I’m not alone in this; I hear the same lament from many other followers of Christ. Why is this so hard, to read the words of the One who loves us, and whom we love, so?

Anyway. I decided to try, a couple weeks back, to incorporate sketching into my Bible reading, in hopes that the creative act would allow me to engage deeper with the reading, and encourage me to be more consistent. It worked well for the first day or two. Then Carl came back from San Diego, I got sick, we had our belated Thanksgiving, we started getting ready for Christmas … yeah. You know how it goes.

I’ve been having a rough time this week, just feeling down and grumpy, culminating in a truly terrible day yesterday when, coming back from a successful trip to the farm to pick up our vegetable share for the week, after avoiding hydroplaning, cars parked on the side of the road, and other tricksy hazards on the road itself, I pulled into our parking spot, tapped the gas instead of the brake, leaped straight at the curb, slammed the brake, scraped the curb, gave myself whiplash, and somehow managed, despite not even denting the front license plate, to knock askew the lamppost in front of our car.

Not my finest moment. Tapping the gas instead of the brake is a problem that has plagued me ever since I started driving, despite my best efforts to eradicate it. Usually I manage to correct in time. This time … it didn’t go so well. The car’s fine, campus safety removed the now drunkenly leaning lamppost without even enquiring how it happened, and my headache and aching muscles from the whiplash vanished after a good night’s sleep. Mostly, I just felt stupid. I work so so hard at not being clumsy, and then it comes sweeping back to overtake me when I least expect it. So frustrating. Clumsiness because you aren’t paying attention is one thing; clumsiness when you are striving to be careful and precise is awful.

“Louise,” you say, impatiently tapping your foot, “What does this have to do with the Bible and sketching?”

Good point. All this is lead-up to me, this morning, pinning my lips together firmly and picking up my Bible, pens, colored pencils, and notebook, despite knowing that it would put us way behind in school work. I read Isaiah 9-11, and managed to capture this sketch to go with those beautiful lines from Isaiah 9:

It’s the first time, possibly in my life, that I’ve managed to have the result of my art attempts look even remotely like what I had envisioned. A wintery birch wood at sunrise, with the light just starting to touch the trees and cause everything to glow. Perfect? Not even close. But satisfying.

I’m not happy about the events that drove (ha ha, ironic choice of words, Louise) me to finally get back to Scripture reading and sketching, but I’m thankful I’m back here again, and I pray, with my Father’s help, that I am better able to stick with it this time.